Defesa e segurança em projetos de integração regional na América do Sul : uma análise a partir do Conselho de Defesa Sul-Americano (CDS).

Abstract

This study is the result of an investigation on the Regional Security Complex that is involved in the discussions on defense and security in South America, specifically since the creation of the South American Defense Council within UNASUR (Union of South American Nations). UNASUR is a South American integration project that was created in 2008, from the signature of the Constituent Treaty of UNASUR, which was signed by twelve South American countries: Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Paraguay, Peru, Suriname, Uruguay and Venezuela. Thus, it is discussed if there is a new model of Regional Complex of Security in South America, implicated in the creation and action of the Council of South American Defense. For the analysis, the Theory of Regional Security Complexes, created by the theorists bound to the Copenhagen School Barry Gordon Buzan and Ole Waever, that emphasizes the regional dimension and that has gained more proeminence in international discussions on defense and security, especially from the last decades of the twentieth century (in a post-Cold War context), due to changes in defense and security dynamics, the end of the bipolar conflict (with the United States and the former Soviet Union as its main actors) and intensification of the regional integration processes. The analysis carried out is based, empirically, on the actions taken by the South American Defense Council between 2009 and 2015, registered these actions in the set of documentation (minutes, regiments, statutes, Reports, declarations, etc.) that were made available through the Digital Repository of UNASUR. Through the registration and analysis of the actions carried out by the Defense Council, this study analyzes the concepts of defense and security that guide the integrative process of UNASUR, the efforts to create and legitimize a South American identity in which regional security and defense. But, above all, it is analysed the Regional Security Complex that has been configured from UNASUR, classifying it as an extra type, based on the definition made by Buzan and Waever, since in its dynamics it is not identified a regional power that acts in a global level. Even with the presence of a country with greater economic expression, both regionally and internationally, as is the case of Brazil, and even with the efforts of the Brazilian governments in order to introduce the country in the main international decision centers, the nature and the implementation of the actions within UNASUR led to discussions on regional defense and security in South America from a perspective of building a security community.